E Lifelong Learning and Self Development

Area E Lifelong Learning and Self-Development (3 units)

Course Expectations for Lifelong Learning and Self-Development

To be certified by the Baccalaureate Requirements Committee and the Committee on Written English Proficiency as meeting the lifelong learning and self-development (Area E) general education requirement, the course will meet the following course expectations:

1. The course must be lower division and open to all students who have completed Written English Communication or its equivalent with a CR or C- or higher.
2. The course must yield a minimum of 6,000 words, including revisions.
3. The course should be student-centered, collaborative, culturally-responsive, and focused on the goals of the first-year experience outcomes. Assignments will be centered on the development of students’ voices in a variety of genres and contexts.
4. The course syllabus must include the university-approved student learning outcomes for Area E and link them to activities and/or assignments that students complete to demonstrate they have met the outcomes.
5. The course must focus on:
   Persuasion, Participation, Lifelong Learning, and Self-Development: First-Year Experience
   • Opportunities to discuss social justice, equity, and inclusion valued at SF State as it relates to their own histories, experiences, and goals
   • Opportunities for participation in scholarly and professional conversations on topics that relate to students’ interests and goals
   • Opportunities to discover and apply concepts related to lifelong learning and self-development, including identity, social justice, and well-being
   • Opportunities to create professional arguments in appropriate genres on topics that are meaningful to students
   • Opportunities to explore pathways (e.g. career selection, leadership development, research opportunities, co-curricular activities, etc)
   • Assignments that culminate in a digital or print portfolio
6. The course will cover:
   Rhetorical Knowledge
   • Opportunities to address rhetorical situations and use writing as a form of action/involvement
   • Instruction and practice in analyzing the audience, purpose and genres of writing
   • Instruction and practice in using writing to participate in professional / scholarly conversations regarding authentic social issues chosen by students, including Area E topics and issues drawn from biology, sociology, and physiology, and covering human behavior and culture, health and wellness, social sciences, death and dying, social justice, the environment, science and technology

   Writing Process

   • Opportunities for practicing the writing process, including significant opportunities for feedback and revision
   • Practice in using collaboration, feedback, and revision to discover more effective ways to persuade one’s audience
   • Opportunities to learn that writing is a goal-driven practice but that goals can evolve through collaboration and through the writing process

   Information Literacy

   • Opportunities for employing research strategies and critically evaluating digital and print sources;
   • Opportunities to learn and practice the ethical and rhetorical purposes of citation;
   • Instruction and practice in integrating the ideas of others meaningfully in one’s own writing; using others’ ideas to challenge and deepen one’s own understanding

   Reflection and Metacognition

   • Opportunities to reflect on themselves as integrated physiological, social, psychological, and aesthetic beings
   • Opportunities to explore how their values, interests and identities create pathways toward their academic, social, and professional future

Student Learning Outcomes for Lifelong Learning and Self-Development (3 units)

After completion of a lower division general education course in Lifelong Learning and Development, students will be able to:

1. Persuasion, Participation, Lifelong Learning and Self-Development:
   Employ concepts related to lifelong learning and self-development, including identity development, social justice, and well-being; Use writing and where appropriate, other forms of disciplinary communication, in ways that are responsive to personal and professional goals, culminating in a digital or print portfolio
2. Rhetorical Knowledge:
   compose rhetorically-aware, purposeful prose in a variety of genres and platforms (print, digital, visual, multimedia) matched to purpose, audience, and context
3. Information Literacy:
   learn and use search strategy skills to locate a wide variety of relevant print and digital sources; critically evaluate sources; use and cite information ethically
4. Writing Process:
   adopt task-specific strategies for generating ideas, drafting, editing and proofreading, and revise mindfully, learn and practice giving and receiving feedback from peers and faculty; reflect on their own and others’ literacy practices
5. Metacognition and Self Reflection:
   Reflect on their own first-year experiences inside and outside the university, in order to foster lifelong learning and development, including all of the following:
   • Employ techniques and strategies that promote the development of well-being and identity
   • Reflect on campus experiences and relationships with peers, staff and faculty
   • Identify strategies for their academic success

Links between Educational Goals and Outcomes for Lifelong Learning and Self-Development

The student learning outcomes were developed in relationship to the "Educational Goals for the Baccalaureate at San Francisco State University." The chart below illustrates that relationship for lifelong learning and self-development. The numbers correspond to the way the educational goals and student learning outcomes are numbered above.